There may be no patching things up for the United States and China after the latest dust-up between the two rivals.

The most recent incident hurting the countries' deteriorating ties came after U.S. airmen publicly showed off a special uniform featuring a patch of an MQ-9 Reaper drone superimposed over a red silhouette of China. The badge was worn during a simulated island assault exercise that wrapped up Tuesday in California.

The patch and exercise prompted a furious reaction from Chinese state-run media, with the hawkish Global Times calling the “highly unusual" moves "an extremely arrogant provocation" and a "strong signal" from the U.S. military that it “is stepping up its war preparations against China,” including in the South China Sea.